The American Hockey League announced today that Spencer Knight of the Charlotte Checkers is the 2023-24 winner of the Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award as the AHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey.
The award is voted on by coaches, players and members of the media in each of the league’s 32 member cities.
Knight returned to action in the fall after having entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program last February to receive help with managing obsessive-compulsive disorder. He has made 44 appearances with the Checkers this season – ranking fifth in the league in minutes played (2,524) – and shows a record of 24-14-5 with a 2.45 goals-against average, a .904 save percentage and five shutouts to help Charlotte reach the Calder Cup Playoffs. Knight won five consecutive decisions from Feb. 10 to Mar. 2, and was named the AHL Goaltender of the Month following a March that included a franchise-record shutout streak of 213 minutes and 17 seconds.
A third-year pro from Darien, Conn., Knight, who turns 23 today, has played 57 games in the NHL since joining the Florida Panthers organization following two seasons at Boston College. The Panthers’ first-round choice (13th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft set a franchise rookie record with 19 wins in 2021-22, and is 32-17-6 with a 2.91 GAA, a .906 save percentage and three shutouts for his NHL career. He has also appeared in 57 AHL games with Charlotte, compiling a record of 32-19-5 with a 2.53 GAA, a .905 save percentage and eight shutouts.
This award, which was first presented by the AHL in 1978, honors the late Fred T. Hunt, a long-time contributor to the league who won three Calder Cup championships as a player and three more as a general manager during a career spent primarily with the AHL’s Buffalo Bisons and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres. Previous winners of the award include Ross Yates (1983), Glenn Merkosky (1987, ’91), Bruce Boudreau (1988), Murray Eaves (’89, ’90), John Anderson (1992), Tim Tookey (1993), Ken Gernander (1996, 2004), Randy Cunneyworth (2000), Mike Keane (2007), Bryan Helmer (2011), Jake Dowell (2014), Tom Kostopoulos (2016), Craig Cunningham (2017), Bracken Kearns (2018), Brett Sutter (2019), John McCarthy (2020), Cal O’Reilly (2021), Sam Anas (2022) and Logan Shaw (2023).
